LeClaire posts fourth shutout as Blue Jackets defeat Blues

Leclaire stopped all 36 shots he faced as the Columbus Blue
Jackets shut out the St. Louis Blues, 3-0, on Thursday.

Jared Boll and Rick Nash scored second-period goals before Jiri
Novotny was awarded an empty-net tally late in the third for
Columbus, which snapped a two-game home losing streak.

The 24-year-old Leclaire, who is 4-2-0 this season, has won all
of his games via the shutout.

"I keep repeating it, but (the shutouts) are not important to
me," Leclaire said. "The important thing is getting the win. I
would have been happy if we won 5-4. We want to have a good
start this year, and the win column is the most important
thing."

The goaltender, who leads the NHL in blankings, has five for his
career and is one short of the franchise single-season record
set by Marc Denis in 2002-03. Denis matched his own mark with
five blankings the following season.

"I'm not sure about his four shutouts this early in the season,"
Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. "You dream about that.
He is very focused right now."

Leclaire turned aside 14 shots in the first period but was
matched by counterpart Hannu Toivonen, who stopped nine in the
session.

However, the Blue Jackets broke through in the middle period.

After a turnover, Jiri Novotny found Boll, whose slap shot from
the right faceoff circle beat Toivonen high to the stick side
with 6 1/2 minutes left to give Columbus a 1-0 lead.

"We had a couple of good shifts there in the second," Boll said.
"I just happened to get the goal. The puck started to squirt
off my stick, so I just tried to get it off as quick as I
could."

Later in the session, with the Blue Jackets on the power play,
defenseman Ron Hainsey fired a shot from the point that bounced
off the end boards to Nash, who was hovering to the right of the
net. Nash, who entered the game tied for third in the league
with seven goals, handled the puck between his legs before
slapping it past Toivonen to double the advantage with 2:08
remaining.

"I don't know (how I scored), it happened so fast," Nash said.
"I was just trying to think of the quickest way I could get the
puck up into the net. The position that I was in, that was the
easiest way to do it."

"I have not seen it," Hitchcock said of Nash's goal. "All I
know is it was a power-play goal."

Nash has six tallies during his five-game goal-scoring streak.

"I saw it go in," Toivonen said. "I should have got my body up
there instead of reaching. He is a great player and it was a
big goal for them."

"Nash is top shelf," Blues defenseman Barret Jackman said.
"It's hard to stop a guy that big with that size and those
hands."

Novotny scored with 2:22 left in the final period when he was
hooked by defenseman Eric Brewer as he was heading for an empty
net on a breakaway.

"I think we are off to a good start," Nash said. "And I think
we can be even better. Things are good. We just don't want to
look ahead of ourselves."

The offensive support was more than enough for Leclaire, who
made 10 saves in the second session and 12 in the third to wrap
up the shutout.

"Pascal's been doing something special for us," Blue Jackets
center Michael Peca said. "All you need in this league is a
goalie to make big saves at big times. He has come up numerous
times to make those saves."

Toivonen finished with 25 saves for Blues, who were blanked for
the first time this season.

"I think the first 30 minutes, we had a lot of chances," St.
Louis coach Andy Murray said. "Then the last 30 minutes, I
don't think we had many opportunities. Their goalie played well
and our goalie played well. This game is not always about what
you get but what you give up, and we just gave up too much
tonight."

"We had some chances," Toivonen said. "I think we can beat
these guys if we play as well as we can and do the right things.
Tonight, things just didn't go our way."